The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was perplexed at “Fabius’ lenience towards outspokenly provocative question of a journalist who placed Russia and the so-called Islamic State on the same shelf”

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius

MOSCOW, September 01. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Foreign Ministry will not leave unnoticed French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius’ pronouncements about Russia in the light of the West’s sanctions policy, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

“At a meeting with France’s ambassadors in Paris, the French minister spoke about alleged results of the sanction pressure on Russia - allegedly decreasing GDP growth rates and investment volumes,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “Nonetheless, Laurent Fabius had to admit that farmers in France and other countries of the European Union were sustaining losses from blear-eyed actions of their countries’ leaders.”

“The historical parallels Fabius drew in the context of economic sanctions between the pressure on the apartheid regime in South Africa and the present-day Russia with its unique experience in building equal relations between its numerous peoples look more than dubious,” the ministry said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was perplexed at “Fabius’ lenience towards outspokenly provocative question of a journalist who placed Russia and the so-called Islamic State on the same shelf as the biggest violators of international law.”

“Russia and France have centuries-long relations of friendship, strong traditions of political and economic cooperation, intensive humanitarian exchanges and contacts between people,” the Russian Foreign Ministry noted. “These things must not be hostages to passing time-serving considerations."